Scott Bader-Saye, academic dean and professor of Christian ethics at Seminary of the Southwest, is one of two runners up in an essay competition sponsored by Trinity Institute for the 2015 National Theological Conference “Creating Common Good: A Practical Conference on Economic Equality.”
Dr. Bader-Saye’s essay “Closing the Gap: A Social Imaginary for the Common Good” will be published in the Anglican Theological Review in February 2016, and he will be featured with the two other winners in a panel discussion at Trinity Church on November 8, 2015. Webcast of the discussion will be at trinitywallstreet.org.
Of the issue of economic equality and creating common good, Dr. Bader-Saye says:
Wealth inequality has become a widespread concern because it is clear that current levels of imbalance have detrimental effects on the economy, democracy, and social solidarity. Economically, wide disparities of wealth mean that those in the bottom 99% have less money to spend, reducing demand and stalling economic growth. Politically, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, more money means more political influence, marginalizing those who have less and diminishing democratic participation. Socially, economic inequality chips away at civic solidarity and communal well-being. Recent studies show that many countries with a growing GDP find themselves declining in aspects of overall health and happiness. The church must use its conceptual and practical resources to propose alternatives and to counter the prevalent myth that wealth inequality is inevitable.
